The Polish Book Institute

A selection of Stefan Grabinski's short stories translated by Anthony Sciscione has been published in the United States. The publication of the volume entitled Orchard of the Dead & Other Macabre Tales was supported by the Book Institute as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme. The book was published by the Valancourt Books publishing house.

Stefan Grabiński ( born 1887, died 1936) is Poland's most famous author of horror stories, often referred to as the 'Polish E.A. Poe" or "Polish H.P. Lovecraft". In the first decades of the twentieth century, he published several collections of fantasy stories and several novels, and also wrote plays and theoretical works. His best-known works include short stories such as Demon ruchu (“The Motion Demon”), Problemat Czelawy (“The Problem of Professor Czelawa”), Maszynista Grot (“Engine Driver Grot”), and Muzeum dusz czyśćcowych (“'The Museum of Purgatorial Spirits”). In addition to the work of Edgar Allan Poe, his work was heavily influenced by parapsychology and the thought of philosophers such as Henri Bergson and William James.

The collection, published by Valancourt Books, includes translations of a total of fourteen short stories by the Polish writer, such as Engramy Szatery (“Szatera’s Engrams”), W domu Sary (“At Sarah's House”), Czerwona Magda (“Red Magda:”), and Pożarowisko (“Burning Ground”), among others. The volume was completed with a foreword by writer Brian Evenson.

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The ©Poland Translation Programme is one of the Book Institute's flagship programmes. Its aim is to promote Polish literature around the world by providing financial support for the publication of Polish books in translation into foreign languages. Foreign publishers may use the funding grant to finance part of the work's publication costs, including, among other things, the translation of the work from Polish into another language, the purchase of copyright licences, and the printing of the book. In 2023 alone, we have subsidised 229 foreign editions of Polish books to be published by publishing houses from 46 countries, to which we have allocated almost PLN 5 million. In all editions of the programme, we have already subsidised a total of more than 3,000 translations of Polish books into foreign languages.

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